Beijing is the word on everyone’s lips and it’s not all good, right now, but whatever the opinions, there’s no disputing that it is one of the key global cities of the future. There is so much of interest going on.

Visitors to Beijing are privileged to experience a developing society: as one Western entrepreneur working in China observed; “I can’t imagine doing what I am doing now (opening three restaurants simultaneously) in any other place in the world or at any other time.”

There’s a sense of pervading excitement and unfolding plans that one imagines existed in colonial days – in establishing Western civilization in outposts of the known world… Shanghai in the 1930’s… India under the Raj…

That coupled with the age-old mystical attraction of the East – the Orient, the ancient Chinese culture, which has influenced so much of the 21st Century world:
French cuisine, for instance, which originated in China.

Philosophising aside, Beijing is beguiling … and addictive…. I didn’t want to leave on my last trip a couple of weeks ago. “This is about to open and I haven’t seen that”… It took me a while to feel my way into the Imperial City. It is built on a far grander scale than Shanghai and harder to get around. Now, on every trip, I discover more hidden corners.

With the ambitious building program prior to the Olympics, there’s bound to be so flack – some hotels or restaurants that don’t work, or have over-extended. The fascination now will be the Beijing of the post-Olympics. Many of the planned restaurants such as the Beijing establishment of Michele Garnaut of M on the Fringe, Hong Kong and M on the Bund, Shanghai, wisely made the decision months ago to wait until after the Olympics to open. Now she has been joined by many others who didn’t make it in time, held up by building plans and other complications.

I can’t wait to see the Beijing of 6 months time – or a year. Chinese American attorney Handel Lee’s redevelopment of the Legation Quarter in the former U.S Embassy to the Qing Dynasty will be completed and the redevelopment of the historic Foreign Legation Street it is on, complete with trolley buses – Qianmen, known as “Heaven’s Passage” during Imperial Times. The CCTV “Trousers” building will presumably be finished, “The Egg” - National Centre for the Performing Arts and “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium will be settled in and many more.

Come to think of it, don’t think I can wait till then – excuse me while I book my flight…I really need another exquisite dinner at Maison Boulud and duck dinner at Duck de Chine in The Hidden City….and all those other places that haven’t opened yet …

Beijing Calling Cards

History is happening by the second in Beijing as the list of global leader visits grows. Beijing was ablaze with the visit of the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, on my last visit to Beijing back in April. Last week my arrival at the grandiose new Beijing Capital Airport was affected by the security surrounding the visit of Condelezza Rice, American Secretary of State and the Thai Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravi. The new Mayor of London has just finished his visit and so the list of dignitary calling cards goes on…

The relentless race towards the August 8 Opening of the Olympics continues with everyone tracking time before and after the event. The new pre-Olympic single entry visa for foreigners is causing havoc with expat businessmen based in Beijing, who are forced to returning to their home country each time of renewal or in one case I’ve heard about, moving their base to Bangkok. The Games Volunteers have hit the city in their spunky new uniforms and the athletes are starting to move in.
The historic first weekend charter flight to Taiwan has taken place this week with much ceremony, heralding the closing of the gap between the countries - an event which could not be imagined fifteen years ago.
And the changes in the city show. There’s more glass in the massive CCTV Tower since April, more landscaping and beautification – and signs in English are plastered around the city with an abandon that no one in the city could have imagined two years ago. In fact, you would hardly recognize the city from two years ago now that the landmarks have changed – with huge building projects dotted all over.

The Olympic Buildings might be finished ahead of time, but the wave of new restaurants is not. The food and beverage scene is caught up in the frenzy and numerous major restaurants scheduled to open months ago are still struggling to open their doors. All construction has now officially stopped, one month out from the Olympics and only one of the ten restaurants I’ve come to review is open – and that’s only a soft opening with no promotion.

As I lounged back in the soft sofas of Maison Boulud, I revelled in the fact that it was worth the trip. This brand new restaurant is the first of the establishments to open in the long-awaited Legation Quarter development by entrepreneurial genius, Handel Lee, who transformed Shanghai with Three on the Bund.
In the same way, he is bringing Michelin-starred restaurants, high-concept art galleries, an underground theatre and luxury retail to the beautiful old former U.S. Embassy, round the corner from Tiananmen Square.
Such a location! And a glamorous, grand-scale, high-end restaurant that could grace any capital of the world. I was lucky enough to enjoy the food of the Grand Master Chef, Daniel Boulud and meet him at work in the kitchen. Beijing is enhanced by the addition of a restaurant of this standard. No visit to this emerging global city will be complete without your finding this out!

A Mexican Meal & Plans for Many More in Beijing

Conversation during dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Beijing with the Executive Chef of the Canadian Embassy is reduced to shouting over the full volume of an authentic Mexican band in sombreros and tight trousers or talking flat out between songs. The food’s OK – if you like Mexican food, but we are trying to talk factually about the plethora of new restaurants racing to open before the Olympics and particularly of his – a group of three in a complex to be built by the name of Project H20.
Billy Kawaja is a busy man. He already runs the menu of a weekend brunch place Café St Laurent below the popular Alfa nightclub and a catering business. Last week he cooked dinner at the New Zealand Embassy to celebrate the visit of Prime Minister, Helen Clarke and historic signing of a Free Trade Agreement with China.
He has several opening and closing parties lined up for the Olympics, on top of the new restaurants. Last week he cancelled our dinner arrangement at the eleventh hour due to an emergency and as I arrived tonight, was pouring over plans with his assistant. Struggling above the noise, I ask if he has time for any private life.
“This is my life, “ he replies, “ You wouldn’t do this in any other city and maybe this is the only time you’d do it here.”
Beijing is overflowing with people seizing the day in similar way. I have seen over two massive restaurant & leisure complexes struggling to meet the deadline of the Olympics. Handel Lee, the Chinese American barrister who transformed Shanghai with his luxury Western Three of the Bund complex is converting the old American Embassy on the edge of Tiananmen Square into the Legation Quarter - a similar marvel to be, currently seething with swarms of labourers, broken bricks and bare earth.
Swire Hotels are nearing completion of The Opposite Room in the Sanlitun district, with entrepreneurial Australian restaurateur David Laris as a consultant on the bars. Michelle Gaurnaut of the M group in Shanghai and Hong Kong has elected to wait to open her Beijing establishment after the Olympics.
Yesterday I visited The Emperor – a top level Chinese hotel of 55 rooms with a view of The Forbidden City, which was officially opening tonight. The downstairs restaurant Shi was riddled with noise and the smell of varnish, so I repaired to the rooftop bar and gazed at the treetops and skyline of The City – breathing in the old and new. It will be fascinating to return to Beijing in three months’ time – let alone a year.

Beijing is ablaze with the visit of the Australian Prime Minister

Beijing is ablaze with the visit of new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who delivers speeches in perfect Mandarin, punctuated with Chinese proverbs… and his wife Therese Rein, so it wasn’t altogether surprising that I should run into her at the influential Australian Red Gate gallery yesterday as I was coming in and she was going out.
We smiled broadly at each other – mine motivated by pure pleasure and recognition, hers probably because she’s that kind of person. We haven’t met – although I’m from Australia –it was just one of those memorable moments that happen when you see fellow countrymen away from home.

The gallery, incidentally is a special treat. Located in a gatehouse of the ancient city wall, it’s almost a complete experience before you’ve seen the art. Up a myriad of steps and restored ramparts, you are thrust into a scenario from the mysteries of the Ming and Sung era past.

Inside the gallery, the setting exhibits the exact contrasts that constitute contemporary Beijing – the original architecture and exposed walls, set with modern art. The current artist represented in the main room is Wei Qingji whose work rests on the juxtaposition of influences on Beijingingers – the confusion of the timeworn old of the Mao regime and furious Westernization of the current day. It’s a perfect key to the culture..

Furthering the Australian emphasis of the day, the PR Director of my hotel (the new Ritz Carlton, opened in December 2007), Kaarin Lindsay from Melbourne, Australia, was yesterday awarded the company PR Director of the Year for Asia.
Not bad for a 33 year old, who only arrived here from Sydney a year ago and is competing with the other luminary chains spreading frantically across Asia. Her bright and breezy style, backed by a steely efficiency has made its mark at the Four Seasons, Sydney and previously Park Hyatt, Melbourne and Hyatt Coolum.

I’m just off to join her in the hotel’s Italian restaurant Barola for lunch. Ciao from China.

Up the Gondola with a glass of Champagne in my hand.

Up the gondola with a glass of champagne in my hand and I’m on top of the world – surrounded by the indescribable beauty of The Remarkables mountains ringing the lake (Wakitipu) at Queenstown, New Zealand.

It’s the final night of the Pinot Noir Celebration of the Central Otago region – the climax of an intense two and a half days of homage to the wines of this increasingly important region. There’s a magical element to the” terroir”- the rich mineral soils of this former goldmining area, developing the regional identity further each year, as the vines age and the makers embrace the land.

We tasted the wine of the twenty four participating companies – in a couple of hours the first morning – 9am and it’s taste and spit (and talk); we’ve conflabbed with the winemakers over lunch (I was lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality of owner Nigel Greening and winemaker Blair Walter at the celebrated Felton Road winery in Bannockburn); we’ve tasted the wines of thirteen extra wineries in the magnificent setting of Mt Soho in Arrowtown; and partied with the winemakers over dinner. We’ve familiarized ourselves with evocatively-named wineries such as: Wooing Tree, Three Miners, Wild Earth, Desert Heart, (actor Sam Neill’s) Two Paddocks, Sleeping Dogs (named after the first film of owner Roger Donaldson), Shaky Bridge, Pisa Moorings and Judge Rock.

We’ve listened to experts such as Allen Meadows alias “Burghound’ – one of the world’s leading commentators on Burgundy and Jean-Pierre de Smet recently retired winemaker and director of Domaine de l’Arlot, keeper of the cultural heritage of the Association de l’Abbaye de Saint-Vivant – home of the original Burgundy vineyards.

As we listened to Jean-Pierre telling us the history and gazed longingly at the four Burgundies we were about to sample –a flight of 2004 Romanee-Saint-Vivant (How long can we hold out – my hand kept creeping towards the glass!), there was much talk of the parcels of land from which the prized drop is made. We watch a misty film of a horse and plough working the vineyard (they’re going back to organic) and the romantic interior of the Abbaye – and it dawned on me that these parcels of land are the same size as my newly acquired home block in Central Victoria, Australia! Olive-growing neighbours tell me that the land and soils are rich – and it’s also an old goldmining area. I could be sitting on a fortune. The estimated value of the four glasses facing me is around $AUD4,000.00. Burgundy beware! (and Central Otago!). Drummond may yet rise!

Hot Start for 2008!

Welcome to the Year, Connoisseurs! And a hot one it is, here in Australia.

Melbourne – the southern city of the east coast of the mainland, suffered its hottest day on record for that time of the year when the temperature hit 42 degrees between Christmas and New Year.
Coming through Customs on New Year’s Eve on my way back from spending Christmas with the family in the colder climes of Wellington, New Zealand, I was told, “You won’t need that leather jacket out there, Lady – it’s 41 degrees!”

We’ve had several days of it now and Melbournians who haven’t deserted the city for holidays at the beach, are hiding behind drawn blinds and closed doors.
I’m packing for a move to the country – living with a house overtaken by cartons,
praying for a cooler day on Moving Day next Monday.

I’m fleeing the city for the drought-stricken countryside of Central Victoria for the old gold mining area around Bendigo and Castlemaine. My friends consider me crazy – no main town water, no natural gas, no mail delivery and what do you do with your rubbish? It’s an interesting question, beyond the realms of the majority of people’s imagination in 2008.

Few have experienced life without community systems. It wasn’t an issue during my childhood growing up in the New Zealand country in the 1940’s and 50’s. We carted water from the creek when we ran out of water for the house and drank from a rainwater tank, which is what I will be doing in my new life. Talk about déjà vu!
As one knowing friend said smugly, “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl!”

What an interesting time I’ll be having discovering the best spots to wine, dine and indulge - to report to you. There’s a plethora of interesting galleries and individual places to explore. Bold Cafe & garden gallery on the outskirts of Castlemaine combines good food, plants and sculpture in an enticing garden setting – an oasis in the middle of the country, with the best dahl I’ve found for a while – and local wines by the glass.

Bold Cafe
146 Duke Street
Castlemaine
Victoria 3450
T. 03 54706038

All this, just over an hour from Melbourne!

Enjoy!

jill@flyingconnoisseur.com

Welcome to the Flying Connoisseur Blog

Thanks for joining us. You can follow the footsteps of the Flying Connoisseur journeys here- and keep abreast of the entries for upcoming guides by reading the previews of places as they are selected - cultural cameos of restaurants, wineries, galleries, museums, small hotels; plus epicurean and arts events; current Australian Ballet & Royal New Zealand Ballet productions; Pinot Noir conferences in Australia and New Zealand; share the experience of your writer eating lunch with a family living in a Beijing hutong and spending the ANZAC memorial day in Shanghai.
Feel free to add comments and suggestions or experiences of your own.

Happy travelling - see you at the next great place! If you find it first, make sure to let the Flying C. and rest of the connoisseurs know!